The Carter Center is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization established in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, to advance peace and health worldwide [1]. Its visual identity centers on a stylized eagle’s head, a mark that has been documented on the organization’s signage, commemorative materials, and official trademark filings [1][2].
Design and History
The Carter Center’s logo is described in official records as a stylized eagle’s head [1]. The mark is registered as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, where the mark description states: “The mark consists of an eagle head design.” The trademark was filed by The Carter Center, Inc. on June 11, 2008, and was registered and renewed as of May 6, 2019 [2].
The eagle head appears within a circular arrangement that incorporates the organization’s name and motto. A commemorative logo for the Center’s twenty-fifth anniversary, celebrated in 2007, features the stylized eagle’s head in the center of a circle, around which appears the motto “Waging peace. Fighting disease. Building hope.” A gold banner with two stars and the words “25th anniversary” stands at the bottom of that version [3]. A similar circular treatment is documented on a handcrafted wooden box made by Rosalynn Carter in 2017, engraved with the eagle head within a circle, with “THE CARTER CENTER” on the interior of the circle and “WAGING PEACE FIGHTING DISEASE BUILDING HOPE” on the exterior [4].
Meaning and Symbolism
Documented sources describe the logo’s central element as an eagle’s head, but no official source in the available research explains a specific symbolic meaning for the eagle in the context of The Carter Center [1][2]. The motto that surrounds the mark in several applications, “Waging peace. Fighting disease. Building hope,” is prominently featured on the organization’s own website and appears in the circular text around the eagle head in commemorative and engraved versions of the logo [5][4].
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